This invention pertains to a device for transferring work pieces, in particular pieces of fruit or vegetable, which are transported by a conveyor to a transfer zone extending along a conveyor section, and are then transferred to containers placed in a row below the transfer zone, in particular cans or jars.
By such a device, items such as cucumbers, paprika pods or the like are filled in a plurality of cans or jars, which are then processed further.
Apparatus is known in the art for transporting cucumbers, paprika pods and the like on a conveyor belt which, in the transfer zone, several strippers are arranged side by side, which seize cucumbers taken along on a certain longitudinal strip of the conveyor belt and gradually move them to the edge of the conveyor belt, over which they then fall into the cans or jars which are held in readiness. The strippers form between them passage openings for the cucumbers arranged over the conveyor belt and must be moved back and forth in an oscillating manner, transverse to the transport direction, so as to avoid accumulation in front of the passage openings. This requires a relatively expensive construction. It is disadvantageous also that cucumbers or other piece goods of delicate surface are subjected to mechanical stress on the one hand by the reciprocating movement of the strippers and, on the other, by guiding at the strippers transversely to the transport direction, so that damage is inevitable.
Another apparatus known in the art also has a conveyor belt on which the cucumbers are transported into the transfer zone. Above the transfer zone is a shaft extending substantially in transport direction, with blade type wings which, upon rotation of the shaft, seize the cucumbers lying on the conveyor belt and push them over the edge of the conveyor belt so that they can fall into the cans or jars held in readiness. With this device, too, the above-described disadvantages result.